CITY ROOM; Brush Fires Across Region Are Spread by High Winds

Published: April 10, 2012

Updated, 6:25 p.m. | Driven by high, fast-shifting winds, a five-alarm brush fire swept through the former Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island on Monday and was expected to keep burning for at least another day, fire officials said.

With dry, gusty conditions throughout the region, brush fires also erupted in New Jersey and on Long Island, where some residents of Riverhead had to evacuate their homes and several buildings were damaged. In Connecticut, brush fires prompted some train delays.

The Staten Island fire was reported just before 11 a.m. west of the West Shore Expressway in a largely unpopulated part of Staten Island dominated by parkland, industrial space and the former landfill, which is being turned into a park. The fifth alarm was declared at 2:25 p.m., meaning that 198 firefighters were battling the blaze, said James Long, a Fire Department spokesman. It was still in effect at 6:25 p.m.

''It's still a very current and active fire,'' Mr. Long said. ''There's a lot of mulch. There's a lot of phragmites'' - the invasive reeds that provide perfect kindling for brush fires and that officials have been trying to eradicate. ''And the wind is a very big issue here. The wind pushes it, drives it, the wind settles down, then the wind re-directs, pushes and drives it, and that's what we're dealing with.''

The National Weather Service reported steady winds of 15 to 25 miles an hour with gusts of up to 45 miles an hour in the vicinity. Combined with bone-dry air - the humidity has been below 20 percent in recent days, the weather service said - the conditions for spreading fire were perfect.

The Staten Island fire snarled traffic along the expressway, the city said. Mr. Long said no homes were threatened, but that some structures on the landfill were reportedly in danger. Officials did not expect it to spread, but were taking precautions to keep smoldering debris wet so that it did not reignite.

''It could be for a day or two,'' another fire department spokesman said. Three firefighters sustained minor injuries, the city said.

On Long Island, a fire broke out at 2:30 p.m. at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, a 5,300-acre research center run by the Energy Department that houses nuclear material. As of about 10 p.m., officials said, the fire had burned at least 300 acres; the blaze was under control, and no buildings or equipment were in danger. Its sewage treatment facilities were evacuated as a precaution.

Also on Long Island, firefighters from 109 departments in Suffolk County and 15 in Nassau County were battling a brush fire in Ridge and Manorville, prompting a mandatory evacuation for some residents in nearby Riverhead. As of 7:30 p.m., one commercial building in Riverhead was destroyed, and 10 homes were damaged. Three firefighters sustained minor injuries there.

In Burlington County, N.J., officials reported that a major fire in the Pinelands had extended over 1,000 acres.

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.

PHOTO: A brush fire in a largely unpopulated area of Staten Island snarled traffic along the West Shore Expressway on Monday. (PHOTOGRAPH BY EMILY BERL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)